Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Fleatastics,
and for your main character, Sarafleana?

A: I was doodling and thought about the long body of a dachshund.
I sketched the dog’s head as the first spread, then there were 12 spreads of
his body and the final spread was the tail.

I thought maybe a story could be happening behind the dog
with time passing and weather changing. The body sketch was just a horizontal
line. One day I looked at it and saw a stage and that’s when I thought of a
performance. Of course, fleas would be the performers!

I did not have a main character when I sold the story. My
first idea was a flea named Farley Fillmore that no one took seriously because
he was so tiny; I had a character that was always perfectly put together and a
couple of other ideas. I worked for weeks on each storyline, but they just
weren’t right.

When I came up with the first line, “Sarafleana was a born
jumper,” I knew I was on the right track. It made complete sense that my main
character would love to jump and dream of being the highest jumping flea of all
time, but it still took a while for the story to unfold with the help of
editor Rebecca Davis, her assistant, Brittany Ryan, and art director Barbra
Grzeslo. They were an absolute joy to work with.

Q: Did
you come up with the illustrations or the text first, or did you work on them
simultaneously?

A:
For me it’s usually the story that comes first. Sometimes a sketch or doodle
will inspire a book idea, or maybe a word or a phrase.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

A: The main message is about following our heart. I never
get tired of that message. Sarafleana has to stay focused, practice hard, and
keep her jumping ability a secret because to follow her path means she can’t be
part of her family’s Parasite Pyramid. It’s not always easy to have different
desires and dreams from our families.

The book has another message that I love: No matter what
happens we have to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and keep moving
forward. The show must go on!

A: I’m working on an idea for a graphic novel about a magician and putting
together a proposal for a picture book series called The Adventures of Lucy
and Seven. I’ve also created a whole new body of photo-digital illustrations.
These images would be for adult, Y/A and middle grade covers.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: My husband and I created a trailer for The Fleatastics. I
wrote the narration and Matt did the animation. He made Sarafleana flip and
jump, the fleas parachute to Sparky the dog, and the Fleatastics perform.

We listened to about 150 different kinds of circus music to
find the right one. Then Matt layered park sounds, crickets, boings, a drum
roll, and applause. Here is the link.

About Me

Author, THE PRESIDENT AND ME: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MAGIC HAT, new children's book (Schiffer, 2016). Co-author, with Marvin Kalb, of HAUNTING LEGACY: VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FROM FORD TO OBAMA (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).